When managing your Amazon business, understanding your sales metrics is crucial. We'll break down the key differences displayed in Kapoq referencing Product Sales and Gross Sales and how these figures play into your operation when viewing different datasets.
Product Sales, Gross Sales, Net Sales, Ad Sales, & Business Reports
Product Sales: This represents the value of products customers have ordered after cancellations are removed. We source this data from the Orders Report in Seller Central.
Gross Sales: This broader metric captures the total sales revenue before deductions, such as returns and discounts. It gives a fuller picture of your revenue generation. This is similar to what you'd find in the Payments section of Reports in Seller Central.
Gross Sales primarily attributes orders and revenue to the delivery date + 7 days, offering a validated view of what's been delivered.
The Finance API provides real-time transaction information, pulled daily by Kapoq, but keep in mind, there may be delays. For example, Amazon's settlement period differ between each account and data will adjust until the accounts settlement period closes. e.g. If a customer order is placed in one month but delivered the next, the financial statements may reflect the delivery month.
Note: Amazon recently announced updates to its Deferred Transactions process, including a new Deliver Date + 7 Days or DD+7 policy which will mean that all orders will now have their proceeds deferred until 7 days after the delivery date. For more detail, see both Amazon articles: What is a deferred transaction and Payments based on delivery date
Net Sales: Gross Sales minus refunds, promotional rebates and other adjustments.
Ad Sales: The total sales attributed to the ads that item is a part of, regardless of which item was purchased. Derived via the Ad API.
Business Reports: If viewing or downloading sales data from the Business Reports in Seller Central, please note, sales will not match Product Sales or Gross Sales. All three datasets detailed here are from differing data sources. One benefit of us using the Orders Report when pulling in Product Sales is that Business Reports tend to inflate sales as Amazon does not take out the canceled orders immediately.
Metric | Source | Definition | Kapoq | Attribution |
Gross (Product) Sales
| Finance API (Equivalent to Payments Reports in Amazon) | Total gross delivered product revenue. | Accounting, Alerts, Analytics (Accounting) | The day the product is delivered. |
Net Sales
| Finance API (Equivalent to Payments Reports in Amazon) | Gross sales minus refunds, promotional rebates and other adjustments | Accounting, Alerts, Analytics (Accounting) |
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Ad Sales | Advertising API | The total sales attributed to the ads that item is a part of, regardless of which item was purchased.
| Alerts, Advertising, Analytics (Advertising) | The day the ad is clicked. |
Product Sales | All Orders Report | Total gross ordered product revenue. More consistent and reliable than Business Reports because it takes into account canceled orders right away. | Performance, and throughout the platform–distinct from the shipped orders in Accounting. | The day the product is ordered.
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All of these definitions are consistent with how Amazon presents the data in the specific Source cited. Amazon itself has inconsistencies in data (between the Orders Report and the Business Report, for example), and we choose the data that shows the most reliability and integrity where possible.
Think of ad sales and gross sales/net sales in isolation. In other words, Gross Sales in the Amazon Financial API aren’t treated as Ad Sales + Organic Sales. Rather, gross/net sales are based on the delivery date + 7 days policy, whether those orders originated from organic or from ads. This is simply what Amazon uses in their Payments Reports to create your statements for the month. These are the figures Amazon will actually pay out, and so they are the ones commonly used for PnL reporting.
Ad Sales are attributed based on the day the ad is clicked, which can have a different window of time than when that order is shipped. These windows can be different enough that you can see, in some cases, that the ad sales are higher than the reported gross sales for that time period for a particular SKU.
The other consideration for Ad Sales is that it’s the total sales attributed to the ads that item is a part of, regardless of which item was purchased. You can find Ad Sales (Same SKU) in Analytics > Performance, which does show you Ad Sales attributed to the same SKU.
For example, take a look at the below image. As you can see, there can be a significant difference between Ad Sales and Ad Sales (Same SKU):
And so, not all Ad Sales that feature a particular item actually end up with a sales/order for that same item.
Summary/Takeaway
Understanding these differences and how they relate to the Ad API, Finance API, and your Seller Central / Vendor Central reports can help you better manage and interpret your Amazon sales data. Always refer to the Finance API for the most accurate and validated sales transactions, especially for accounting purposes in Kapoq.
Ad sales are the total sales attributed to the ads that item is a part of, regardless of which item was purchased. They don’t tell you exactly how much sales are actually going towards that same SKU. (Though “Ad Sales (Same SKU)” in Performance will).
Ad sales are attributed based on the day the ad was clicked, rather than the day the item was purchased or shipped, so the advertising attributed sales for an order won't always count on the same date it gets attributed to in total sales.
More specifically, Gross sales (and therefore Net Sales) are based on when the item was delivered + 7 days, which can have a pretty different window than when an ad was clicked that resulted in a sale.